In less than four months, Warren Buffet's company has slashed its stake in the banking group by more than half.
84 million shares of the US Bank's parent company have been sold by the renowned investor's conglomerate.
At the beginning of January, the company owned 145 million shares of US Bancorp, which was worth $8.1 billion. It has just 53 million shares valued at $2.4 billion, reflecting its stock sales and the decline in US Bancorp stock.
The cost base before the sales was about $5 billion. Between July 1 and October 31 of this year, the majority of selling took place. It is believed that the company made an 18% profit from its sales.
The company that holds some of US Bancorp stock via its New England Asset Management subsidiary has reduced its stake this year. As it now owns less than 5% of the bank, it no longer has to report stock sales to the SEC.
In the third quarter, $4.7 billion of banking, financial, and insurance stocks were sold by the company. The portfolio update will show how much US Bancorp stock they sold.
A few long-held positions have been reduced by the company after it was a net buyer of stocks. It said earlier this month that it sold about $275 million of BYD stock. Since July, it has reduced its stake in the rival by almost a billion dollars.
Changes to its bank holdings have been made recently. Between 2020 and 2021, it exited its bets on Wall Street firms. It built a $3 billion position in Citigroup in the first quarter of this year, after topping up its Bank of America stake.
The ultimate investor is Warren Buffet.